So after two weeks, this early morning workout stuff has not been too bad. It is so quiet and calm outside before everyone gets up! And after 2 weeks, I have gotten more used to it and not been quite as tired at work during the day.
Sunday, though, I think I tweaked something in my right ITB area. It felt funny when I was still about a mile from home, like it was cramping up, so I slowed up a little. And really, it wasn't too bad, but then when I made the turn from the main road into our subdivision, it twinged quite a bit. I slowed more, and eventually just walked the last couple blocks home. I hated, hated, hated walking, but I had to. It feels a little stiff, and stairs are slightly uncomfortable, but I'm surviving. Hopefully some ice, Icy Hot, and rest will help it before I run again on Tuesday.
In other running news, at church, Michelle proposed that we start a group to train for a local half marathon in November where a bunch of moms can all do it together. She's doing the Disney Princess Half at the end of February, and I'm doing the 15K in town right after that, so this November race is still a ways off. It would be fun, though. I don't have anyone to run with, and Michelle often runs with one other person, but if we could get a bigger group, women of all speeds, it might be fun to do our long runs together like that, and then race together. Something to think about!
Monday, January 23, 2012
Saturday, January 21, 2012
I Painted My Toenails!
After Natalie got up from her nap this afternoon, she was relaxing on the couch a bit. I was sitting next to her and reached over to squeeze her cute little toes. Her toenail felt a little funny, so I rubbed it some more, and as I turned my head to look at it, Natalie said, "Yeah, I painted my toenails during nap." So nonchalantly, but I scared the heck out of her when I jumped and screamed, "You did what!?!?!? Where!?!?!?!"
Indeed she had painted her toenails glittery blue, as well as about half of her little toes. I took her back to her room and had her show me where she was sitting and how she did this. She'd sat at the end of her bed on her toybox, Kleenex under her toes to catch any drips, and pulled back the blinds to do this with sunlight. Apparently she knows that turning on her bedroom light will alert me to the fact that she's doing something she's not supposed to, so she used natural light. Amazingly, she hadn't made a mess, and the Kleenex had caught any drips. The only flaw to her plan was that she didn't throw away the Kleenex -- she just stuffed them under her bed when she was done. Silly girl!
It was hard to be too mad at her when she was so cute. But I did take all the nail polish and put it somewhere that only I can reach. I don't want to take a chance on this happening again, but with bad results!
Indeed she had painted her toenails glittery blue, as well as about half of her little toes. I took her back to her room and had her show me where she was sitting and how she did this. She'd sat at the end of her bed on her toybox, Kleenex under her toes to catch any drips, and pulled back the blinds to do this with sunlight. Apparently she knows that turning on her bedroom light will alert me to the fact that she's doing something she's not supposed to, so she used natural light. Amazingly, she hadn't made a mess, and the Kleenex had caught any drips. The only flaw to her plan was that she didn't throw away the Kleenex -- she just stuffed them under her bed when she was done. Silly girl!
It was hard to be too mad at her when she was so cute. But I did take all the nail polish and put it somewhere that only I can reach. I don't want to take a chance on this happening again, but with bad results!
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Chocolate Ravioli
On Sunday, the girls went to their grandparents' for the afternoon to make ravioli for our dinner. I dropped them off, then after some errands, I swung by the house to get Colin, and we went over to enjoy some homemade ravioli!
It was going much slower than anticipated... Katie and Poppop were rolling out the gluten-free pasta, and Natalie and Grandma were busy making 3 different kinds of fillings, then stamping out ravioli. They made the all-cheese ravioli square, and the cheese and prosciutto ravioli round. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time to make the cheese and spinach ravioli. Bummer... I would've liked that one.
With dinner almost an hour later than originally projected, we were STARVING when we finally sat down to our two delicious types of ravioli, plus homemade meatballs and 2 different kinds of sausages. Yum!!! Everything turned out really well, so it was worth the wait.
And for dessert... chocolate ravioli! They filled ravioli with Nutella, then after boiling, they deep-fried them to give them a nice crispy outside. Sprinkled with powdered sugar and cinnamon, they were a fabulous dessert. The girls worked very hard on the meal, and it was all delicious. I never would've thought about chocolate ravioli as a dessert possibility, but it worked!
It was going much slower than anticipated... Katie and Poppop were rolling out the gluten-free pasta, and Natalie and Grandma were busy making 3 different kinds of fillings, then stamping out ravioli. They made the all-cheese ravioli square, and the cheese and prosciutto ravioli round. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time to make the cheese and spinach ravioli. Bummer... I would've liked that one.
With dinner almost an hour later than originally projected, we were STARVING when we finally sat down to our two delicious types of ravioli, plus homemade meatballs and 2 different kinds of sausages. Yum!!! Everything turned out really well, so it was worth the wait.
And for dessert... chocolate ravioli! They filled ravioli with Nutella, then after boiling, they deep-fried them to give them a nice crispy outside. Sprinkled with powdered sugar and cinnamon, they were a fabulous dessert. The girls worked very hard on the meal, and it was all delicious. I never would've thought about chocolate ravioli as a dessert possibility, but it worked!
Monday, January 16, 2012
MLK - Day Off
It's a holiday for me, so while Colin is at work, Natalie is at pre-school, and Katie is at Skateworld with her after-school group, I've been busy with other things.
The girls helped me start a pot roast in the crock pot this morning before I dropped them off. Since then, I have:
The girls helped me start a pot roast in the crock pot this morning before I dropped them off. Since then, I have:
- Been to the Y and completed my strength training workout per my race plan.
- Finally taken the time to set up my Garmin account and download all my running data from the Forerunner. That was pretty cool!
- Cleaned myself up.
- Waxed my eyebrows.
- Ironed clothes.
- Had lunch.
- Hit the mall to shop for Katie's birthday and also use a Loft gift card for myself (PS - this was awesome! I got 3 shirts, 2 of this in blue and green and one of this, the whole store was 40% off, and I got an additional 15% off for using a gift card. It should've been just over $100, which was the amount of the gift card, but now I have almost half of it left! I can shop again!)
- Watched Young and the Restless on the DVR...
And now here I am. I have some cleaning/de-cluttering to tackle, and also pants to hem and Katie's gifts to wrap. We'll see how much of that I can complete before Colin brings the girls home and I need to work on dinner.
If this was a holiday for you, too, I hope you enjoyed the extra time off! Back to work tomorrow!
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Online Discretion
If you've been reading a while, you know I don't talk about work too much. I enjoy my job, and it's a part of who I am, but for the most part, it is not exciting enough to feel like I need to share with the rest of the world. If you know me in real life, you know what I do.
In addition, I don't know that I've mentioned my employer by name on my blog. Part of that is for my own privacy, and part of it is because, if you live around here, you would likely have an opinion to voice about them, be it positive or negative. And since this is about me, not my work, I'd rather keep that out of it. I think I'm in the majority on this one. Most bloggers purposely exclude information like that.
However.
Do you remember this post, Resolutions, from back around my birthday? I vaguely do (and I wrote it!)... I talked about needing to bring more of the Mom side of my personality to work. Mom Megan has been slowly coming to the workplace, with more direct instructions and better delegation. Most of my team members have been just fine with this, and in fact, I think it's actually improved my relationship with one of them. He knows, more specifically, what it takes to get the job done, and that's helped the both of us. One, though, is having an awakening about the fact that I'm serious. Unfortunately, the awakening is also being discussed in detail in public conversations on Facebook, and it is just not appropriate. I've read so many articles about how online behavior can hurt your employment, or endanger your chance of finding new employment, so I'm careful about what I write. Not everyone is, though, and it shows.
Next week, one of the topics in our manager's staff meeting is going to be about online discretion, and it couldn't come at a better time. If I'm not getting through to this individual, perhaps a lively discussion facilitated by our manager will be able to make headway. Otherwise, I'm not sure what I'll be able to do to drive home the message of "think before you speak/call/email/post". It will likely not be pretty.
In addition, I don't know that I've mentioned my employer by name on my blog. Part of that is for my own privacy, and part of it is because, if you live around here, you would likely have an opinion to voice about them, be it positive or negative. And since this is about me, not my work, I'd rather keep that out of it. I think I'm in the majority on this one. Most bloggers purposely exclude information like that.
However.
Do you remember this post, Resolutions, from back around my birthday? I vaguely do (and I wrote it!)... I talked about needing to bring more of the Mom side of my personality to work. Mom Megan has been slowly coming to the workplace, with more direct instructions and better delegation. Most of my team members have been just fine with this, and in fact, I think it's actually improved my relationship with one of them. He knows, more specifically, what it takes to get the job done, and that's helped the both of us. One, though, is having an awakening about the fact that I'm serious. Unfortunately, the awakening is also being discussed in detail in public conversations on Facebook, and it is just not appropriate. I've read so many articles about how online behavior can hurt your employment, or endanger your chance of finding new employment, so I'm careful about what I write. Not everyone is, though, and it shows.
Next week, one of the topics in our manager's staff meeting is going to be about online discretion, and it couldn't come at a better time. If I'm not getting through to this individual, perhaps a lively discussion facilitated by our manager will be able to make headway. Otherwise, I'm not sure what I'll be able to do to drive home the message of "think before you speak/call/email/post". It will likely not be pretty.
Monday, January 9, 2012
The Insanity Begins...
This week I'm beginning my prep for the 15K race that's the first weekend in March. I figured I needed 8 weeks to get ready for it based on the distances I currently run. Like last year, I'm using a modified Hal Higdon 15K/10-mile training plan. I do need some sort of plan to keep myself on track, and now that I've run a couple long-ish races, I see how I can start with one of his plans and tweak a few things to better meet my needs.
The other trick is scheduling this all in. For the last year or so, I've mostly been running at lunchtime during the week, then mornings on weekends. I get out of work late enough that it's hard to run in the evenings when we have dinner, homework, activities, etc with the girls. However, it is hard to run more than about 3 miles at lunch since I have limited time to do that, shower, change, and get back to my desk.
So now we are at early morning running. I normally get up at 5:30 for work. Starting this week, I'm going to get up before that most of the days during the week so that I can run or go to the Y for weights/cross-training (based on that day's schedule), then return home and be in the shower at pretty much my normal time. Today was my first day, and I will just say that it was not intolerable. :) The hardest part for me is putting my contacts in so early and expecting my eyes to see! We'll see if I have the same opinion a few weeks in, or if this just turns into drudgery. But it's the best I can do to meet my objective of finishing the 15K faster than last year!
PS - Speaking of insanity, my friend Phillip ran the Goofy's Race and a Half Challenge at Walt Disney World over the weekend. Yes, that's a half marathon on Saturday followed by the full marathon on Sunday! He is insane! But if anyone could do it, Phillip could. Way to go, buddy! We're proud of you!!!
The other trick is scheduling this all in. For the last year or so, I've mostly been running at lunchtime during the week, then mornings on weekends. I get out of work late enough that it's hard to run in the evenings when we have dinner, homework, activities, etc with the girls. However, it is hard to run more than about 3 miles at lunch since I have limited time to do that, shower, change, and get back to my desk.
So now we are at early morning running. I normally get up at 5:30 for work. Starting this week, I'm going to get up before that most of the days during the week so that I can run or go to the Y for weights/cross-training (based on that day's schedule), then return home and be in the shower at pretty much my normal time. Today was my first day, and I will just say that it was not intolerable. :) The hardest part for me is putting my contacts in so early and expecting my eyes to see! We'll see if I have the same opinion a few weeks in, or if this just turns into drudgery. But it's the best I can do to meet my objective of finishing the 15K faster than last year!
PS - Speaking of insanity, my friend Phillip ran the Goofy's Race and a Half Challenge at Walt Disney World over the weekend. Yes, that's a half marathon on Saturday followed by the full marathon on Sunday! He is insane! But if anyone could do it, Phillip could. Way to go, buddy! We're proud of you!!!
Friday, January 6, 2012
Ease Back Into Work
Going back to work after vacation is never fun. You get used to the sleeping in, the relaxed pace, the ability to change your schedule to whatever, whenever during the day. I am thankful that we went back to work on a 4-day week to ease back into it! Now we have a full week, followed by another 4-day week for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
And after that, there are no holidays on the schedule until Memorial Day! It's a long stretch, but I guess that's why we also have floating holidays and vacation days -- I'll have to use at least one before May to give myself a break from work!!!
We're back to having a regular weekend, too, with time at the Y, swimming lessons, shopping, and a birthday party for one of our friends. Can't wait!
And after that, there are no holidays on the schedule until Memorial Day! It's a long stretch, but I guess that's why we also have floating holidays and vacation days -- I'll have to use at least one before May to give myself a break from work!!!
We're back to having a regular weekend, too, with time at the Y, swimming lessons, shopping, and a birthday party for one of our friends. Can't wait!
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